Robert Duff a native of South Eastern Massachusetts, grew up at the head of Herman Melville's Acushnet River. A ideal childhood of long summer days playing along the shores of the river or skating on local ponds left Bob with a deep appreciation for all the beauty that New England has to offer.

"My lifelong dedication to art was born in an instant when as a young man I saw an exhibit of Hudson River School paintings in the New Bedford Whaling Museum's collection. Huge canvasses of mountain and river vistas, capturing the early morning or evening light air took my breath away. My life was changed.

Reading all that I could find and studying all that I could see, I've spent the last 30 years developing my way of capturing the beauty around us.

It must have been wonderful for the 19th century artists to have so much natural beauty around them, horizons broken by large sailing ships, harbors with forests of masts. I am pleased to be living in an area where you can still find beautiful countryside or a historic old schooner such as the New Bedford based Ernestina

Bob's latest adventures bring him to Cuttyhunk. Read about his new phase in "Turning the Page".

"Presently living moments away from Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, I am indulging myself with large doses of coastal scenery. I enjoy painting a wide variety of subjects, still lifes, New England farms, classic sailboats and schooners in New England waters, a rose covered cottage in Nantucket or a Great Blue Heron in a saltmarsh."

"I chose to paint the beauty around me. With all the stress of everyday life people want to see paintings of beautiful places. It is what I love to do."